Mavic 3 Pro lens test

[Meta4]

Did DJI release a new lens for the Mavic 3 Pro? I have had mine for about a year....

The Mavic 3 pro has three cameras.
It has the same main camera as the original Mavic 3, a different (and better) long tele and a new short tele camera.
Read all about it here.

DJI Mavic 3 Pro - Inspiration in Focus - DJI

DJI Mavic 3 Pro is a triple-lens flagship camera drone with multiple focal lengths. Mavic 3 Pro has a 4/3 CMOS Hasselblad camera and dual tele cameras. The three cameras on the Cine version all support Apple ProRes codecs. Mavic 3 Pro offers 43-min max flight time, omnidirectional obstacle...

www.dji.com

Is there an upgrade availble...?

The only upgrade path is to buy the new drone.

 

[waynorth]

Did DJI release a new lens for the Mavic 3 Pro? I have had mine for about a year.... Is there an upgrade availble...?
Thx

The Mavic 3 Pro was released less than a month ago. You probably have the Mavic 3 (not the Pro).

 

[Filmarik]

The Mavic 3 pro has three cameras.
It has the same main camera as the original Mavic 3, a different (and better) long tele and a new short tele camera.
Read all about it here.

DJI Mavic 3 Pro - Inspiration in Focus - DJI

DJI Mavic 3 Pro is a triple-lens flagship camera drone with multiple focal lengths. Mavic 3 Pro has a 4/3 CMOS Hasselblad camera and dual tele cameras. The three cameras on the Cine version all support Apple ProRes codecs. Mavic 3 Pro offers 43-min max flight time, omnidirectional obstacle...

www.dji.com

The only upgrade path is to buy the new drone.

Admire your patience

 

[Point Zero]

I had a good opportunity to fly the Mavic 3 pro I was today and see how good the new cameras are.
I was photographing a brand new ship on its maiden voyage.
So the subject was going to be shiny new, in showroom condition and as an added bonus, the camera always loves red.
Conditions were moderately windy (20-22 knot winds), with overcast skies - ideal photo weather.

166mm equiv lens is significantly improved from the earlier tele camera.
Despite the dinky sensor, this can produce very good images.
Here's a shot from the long lens of a pilot boat at speed.

It's ideal for chasing small fast targets.
With the wideangle lens on most drones, you have to get too close to small subjects and it's hard to keep them in the frame.
But it's no problem with the longer lens to sit back at a much more comfortable distance.
The image shows good detail, despite flying at full speed to keep up.

An image from the wideangle lens shows that it's still as good as it always was.

I had high hopes for the short tele camera and it didn't let me down.
Here it is in smooth water showing an interesting bow wave pattern.

It's good for detail and gives a nice change from the wideangle perspective that we've been stuck with for years.
I'll be using this one a lot.

Here it is from a more conventional angle - the distant parts of the subject don't look too small with the conventional wideangle perspective distortion..

Long tele perspective with a distant subject

Wideangle is handy for getting it all in.

I ended up with loads of great images for the day and I think the client will be pleased too.
I think the Mavic 3 pro is a keeper.
It's going to be very useful and open up a lot more photographic opportunities that any drone in the past.

Beautiful shots sir! I would be extremely happy to have taken these. Hope we get to see some more in the near future...

 

[Rob Dog]

I must have been asleep..... I have a Mavic 2 and a Mini 3 Pro.... Sorry. Good discussion though...

 

[umanbean]

Good discussion though...

Agree wholeheartedly... good discussion through and through, and some fine photos in the OP. Don't know how I missed it originally but, thanks Rob Dog for bringing it back to the top.

This is one I'll probably go back and read through again.

Meta4, thanks... your professionalism shines through again.

 

[jdmagoo]

I honestly think these were exceptional circumstances exacerbated by the onset of COVID and its effect on manpower.

My new Mavic 3 pro is far better in terms of optical performance across the board so I suspect Q/C and manufacturing practices have improved a fair bit since 2020.

To bring back alive an oldish thread. When I bought my Mavic 2 Pro, I went through 10 (that’s TEN!) versions before I got one where the lens was aligned and the image was in focus edge to edge. This was well before COVID and I can say their QC is terrible. The store I did all the returns on got fed up with me and said ‘If this version isn’t spot on, then deal direct with DJI’ - was lucky that it was.

I’m wanting to buy a M3Pro, but fear I will have the same experience

 

[Filmarik]

To bring back alive an oldish thread. When I bought my Mavic 2 Pro, I went through 10 (that’s TEN!) versions before I got one where the lens was aligned and the image was in focus edge to edge. This was well before COVID and I can say their QC is terrible. The store I did all the returns on got fed up with me and said ‘If this version isn’t spot on, then deal direct with DJI’ - was lucky that it was.

I’m wanting to buy a M3Pro, but fear I will have the same experience

That is terrible and quite frightening to even think about it. I thought that this was an isolated QC issue affecting only the Hassy branded camera on M3.
Mavic 3 was my first Mavic and when I encountered the obvious IQ issues, i.e. terribly soft 2 corners and double vision areas in the frame I was told by my dealer that I was just unlucky. They accepted my request for replacement and happily supplied a new unit which was much worse than the first one. The entire right half of the frame was soft and suffered from terrible CA around edges of subjects like buildings etc. Almost like rainbow colored edges. I made a few prints and brought the M3 back to the shop to show them the issue. They accepted it again and this time I was "extremely unlucky" in their words. The third unit was better but not really that good around corners and it had mildly soft areas left and right about half way between centre and edges. So it went back too. Forth one was the best but had wrong S/N label in battery compartment. It was not matching the S/N displayed in FlyApp and the label on the box and the invoice. So I did not know which S/N to use for the compulsory drone registration and my drone business insurance. I thought that it might have been a refurbished unit (it was an open box unit) with a shell from another drone ?? The dealer could not explain this discrepancy either and offered to replace it, again... The fift one was sort of ok and being sick and tired of this tedious exchange process I kept it.
The moral of all these stories:
If you have a good performing Mavic 1, 2 or 3 or Pro, treat is as gold because on the balance of probability there is a reasonably high chance that the replacement unit might not be optically as good as the one you had and lost

 

[Felix le Chat]

To bring back alive an oldish thread. When I bought my Mavic 2 Pro, I went through 10 (that’s TEN!) versions before I got one where the lens was aligned and the image was in focus edge to edge. This was well before COVID and I can say their QC is terrible. The store I did all the returns on got fed up with me and said ‘If this version isn’t spot on, then deal direct with DJI’ - was lucky that it was.

I’m wanting to buy a M3Pro, but fear I will have the same experience

The Mavic 2 pro was sold on the strength of the all-singing, all-dancing 1" sensor 'Hasselblad' camera, hence the 'Big Picture' sales pitch and event as well as the inflated price tag, so it was by no means unreasonable to expect a drone carrying a top quality imaging device to be delivered as ordered. Hats-off to you for sticking to your guns.

 

[Meta4]

If you have a good performing Mavic 1, 2 or 3 or Pro, treat is as gold because on the balance of probability there is a reasonably high chance that the replacement unit might not be optically as good as the one you had and lost

I think the reports of poor image quality are isolated and uncommon.
The prominence they get get in forums is exaggerated and out of proportion with what most users are receiving.
1, 2 or perhaps 3 might be believable, but receiving 9 bad examples is either an almost unbelievable run of bad luck or perhaps it says something about the excessive pickiness of person posting it?

 

[Filmarik]

I think the reports of poor image quality are isolated and uncommon.
The prominence they get get in forums is exaggerated and out of proportion with what most users are receiving.
1, 2 or perhaps 3 might be believable, but receiving 9 bad examples is either an almost unbelievable run of bad luck or perhaps it says something about the excessive pickiness of person posting it?

And what makes you thinking that? Just because you got a good one first time round? I was not excessively picky at all. The first two I got were the Cine versions and they were simply unusable unless you like a "special effects" photos. Going through 9 or 10 looks like that person perhaps encountered a bad batch of drones which somehow made it to the market but should have been excluded by QC in the factory instead.
But when I went through the exchange process myself I asked several member in this forum to share with me their images to see if I was realy just unlucky or if these IQ issues were more common than anyone thought or was willing to admit. Without going into details I will only say that out of all the samples I got from the kind members of this community there was not one without issues. Extent of the issues varied from minor to quite significant. I agree that the level of tolerance or what is acceptable varies greatly among users and that might be why we perhaps have not heard more about this.

 

[Meta4]

And what makes you thinking that?

Mostly because it's just a small number of users out of thousands of members that report things like this.
But the ones that do tend to go on and on, posting repeatedly about it.

Just because you got a good one first time round?

Over nine years flying DJI, I've managed to get a good one every time.

 

[Filmarik]

Over nine years flying DJI, I've managed to get a good one every time.

Paraphrasing my dealer, you must have gotten extremely lucky!!.
I guess we will never know how widespread or prevalent this issue was or still is.
At the end of the day the only thing which really matters is if the one we have is giving us joy or allowing us to make living which ever the case might be. That is Mavic I am talking about here

 

[jdmagoo]

I think the reports of poor image quality are isolated and uncommon.
The prominence they get get in forums is exaggerated and out of proportion with what most users are receiving.
1, 2 or perhaps 3 might be believable, but receiving 9 bad examples is either an almost unbelievable run of bad luck or perhaps it says something about the excessive pickiness of person posting it?

Sure mate, perhaps you’re content with photos that have one entire 1/3 out of focus or one entire corner! If I’m paying a thousands of dollars for a flying camera my expectation is the photos are in focus across the frame.

I suspect the 9 bad examples were all from the same batch. But even still, they should never had got out the door

 

[GadgetGuy]

Sure mate, perhaps you’re content with photos that have one entire 1/3 out of focus or one entire corner! If I’m paying a thousands of dollars for a flying camera my expectation is the photos are in focus across the frame.

I suspect the 9 bad examples were all from the same batch. But even still, they should never had got out the door

All problems with QC are covered under warranty by every manufacturer. Expecting absolutely no QC issues ever is unrealistic. Again, many of these so called issues are from those with unrealistic expectations from a consumer camera drone. Are some better than others! Yes! Are they all within the established tolerances? Usually! Even the most expensive lenses from Nikon, Canon, and Sony have QC issues. They get sorted out through warranty.

 

[jdmagoo]

All problems with QC are covered under warranty by every manufacturer. Expecting absolutely no QC issues ever is unrealistic. Again, many of these so called issues are from those with unrealistic expectations from a consumer camera drone. Are some better than others! Yes! Are they all within the established tolerances? Usually! Even the most expensive lenses from Nikon, Canon, and Sony have QC issues. They get sorted out through warranty.

I’ve never had a problem with any of my full frame lenses for my A7S3 or lenses for my GH5 cameras. The only issues I’ve ever had was with the original Mavic (went through 3 returns before I got a good one - not all lenses problems though), 9x Mavic 2 Pros (all lense problems) and the 15mm lense that comes with the X5S on the inspire 2 was completely out of focus.

The only three drones that were perfect out of box are the DJI FPV, the Avata and the Inspire 1.

So whilst I’ve bought some of Sonys most expensive lenses the only QC issues in my personal experience is with DJI, the concerning part is that they are not one offs, and you are more likely to get a bad copy than good.

I really hope they have fixed this for the M3PRO, or when I buy, I get extremely lucky!!

 

[offtheback]

Post like this makes me nervous. The exchange process I went through with Mavic 3 was exhausting and drawn out. I would hate having to go through the same experience again with M3Pro purchase. In a way it is disappointing to read that the QC at the exit point from the factory is still poor. Units with serious defects should not be sold, full stop.

Took 3 Mavic 2 Pro's to get one with a decent lens.Have had occasional send backs of SLR lenses over the years.

 

[jdmagoo]

Took 3 Mavic 2 Pro's to get one with a decent lens.Have had occasional send backs of SLR lenses over the years.

I wonder if Hasselblad test each camera module separately before its attached to the camera? It seems like (well at least for the M2Pro) that one in ten was correct. That’s 90 drones out of 100 that shouldn’t pass QC. Now in my case all 9 drones were from the same batch, there use to be a DJI serial number checker website that displayed when it was made. All 9 of my bad ones were made in the same month. The 10th and final one was made 3 months later. I’ll see if there’s a new website, because the link I have doesn’t work anymore